June 12, 2017

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Lyft teams up with Jaguar to test autonomous cars

by John_A

There’s a lot of reasons for the folks at Lyft to be happy, and not all of them involve schadenfreude about what’s going down across the street. The ride-sharing company recently scored a further $600 million in investment, $25 million of which came from Jaguar Land Rover. But it wasn’t just cash that the automaker is supplying: it’s also handing over a fleet of vehicles to help the pair test autonomous vehicles.

The money’s actually coming from InMotion, Jaguar’s “mobility services business,” which will help the pair partner on autonomous research. As a sweetener, Lyft drivers will get some sweet rides, although it’s not clear what sort of Jaguars and Land Rover vehicles will be available. The fact that JLR is a premium car maker and Lyft has just launched its own alternative to Uber Black might be useful information, too.

Jaguar Land Rover isn’t the first company to hitch itself to Lyft’s wagon, in stark contrast to the deal over at Uber. Whereas Travis Kalanick and co. like to swallow targets whole, Lyft has shaken hands with plenty of big players in the industry. The biggest partner has to be Waymo, Google’s autonomous vehicle unit, but nuTonomy is another member of Lyft’s rapidly-growing friend list. Perhaps that idiom about nice ride-sharing services always coming last isn’t entirely accurate.